A Greenpoint Artist’s New Book Helps You Plan Your Own Artistic Journey

A Greenpoint artist is providing insight into his artistic process, and inviting readers of his new book to go on their own artistic journeys.

Noted: A Journal to Explore How We Shape, Create, and Develop Ideas, is a new interactive book by graphic designer and artist Adam Turnbull.

In it are superimposed images of a host of paraphernalia – a matchbox, a receipt from a restaurant, a cassette tape, maps, a leaf and several others with blank space either around or on top of the imagery.

All are items Turnbull collected for one reason or another over several years and held on to thinking they may come in handy some day.

With the release of his new book this week, it turns out they did.

Readers are encouraged to use these images as jumping boards to create their own stories, doodles, drawings, or other works of art in the book.

For Turnbull, the main purpose behind the book was to make ideas seem less daunting than they do in people’s heads and imaginations.

The logic is that while you might not end up following through on every idea, heck most of them might even be totally unfeasible, but they can stay alive through your imagination and on the pages of Noted.

“However you choose to use Noted, don’t be precious with your ideas,” writes Turnbull, in the book’s introduction. “Ideas aren’t meant to be treated kindly. Ideas are messy—they should be built on, formed, shaped, and reinvented as they come to fruition. Use the blank spaces in front of you to collect ideas, drawings, thoughts, anything that is sparked in the moment looking at the page, and act on that inspiration because everything leads to something.”

The idea for the book came about when Turnbull was frustrated with his structured method of working. This project really allowed him to create a synthesis of all the ideas, projects, and objects he had thought about or collected over the years, compile them and helps spark ideas in someone else’s head – a visual ideator of sorts if you will.

About six months to a year from now, after the book has been out for a considerable period of time, Turnbull plans to invite readers to submit their creations, either online or physical copies, which he then hopes to share on a website that can be accessed by everyone or host a physical exhibit as well.